Suitcase - Arthur Gar Lock Chang

Suitcase - Arthur Gar Lock Chang

Image Courtesy of: Douglas Chang

Arthur was born in the Zhongshan village of Long Hee from which his father Chang Yet had left to earn money in Australia, sending money and periodically visiting the family. Chang Yet had returned to China in 1933 and in 1936 he arranged for Arthur, then aged 14, to also go to Australia. Chang Yet was a carpenter and made this wooden suitcase for his son. Arthur had begun his education under the new Republic of China and this included a large degree of anti-imperialism directed against Europeans powers then interfering in China’s sovereignty. It was while on this journey to Australia that Arthur drew the then Republic of China's flag on his suitcase.

Father and son then worked for a Tingha based storekeeper at the Wing Hing Long store. Arthur’s personal name – Gar Lock, and then Lock – becoming his surname for many years in a common misapplication in official documents.

As a young man working in Australia for someone who had sponsored him under Australia’s restrictive laws Arthur felt that he was being exploited and these attitudes in turn helped shaped his future as a organiser and support of workers rights, anti-racism and Chinese nationalism that ultimately made him sympathetic to the new China government in 1949.